The Song Detectorists

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Comments

Norfolk

20250512

Matthew Bannister travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician and academic Nancy Kerr.

Matthew Bannister is in Norwich to visit the Norfolk County Record Office where researchers have found some remarkable manuscripts including an 18th century music book from a village band in Mileham and a ballad written by a woman ousted from her home in the 17th century. Nancy Kerr has made new musical arrangements for her band The Melrose Quartet. As dusk falls, Matthew visits the remains of the magnificent Hales Hall deep in the Norfolk countryside.

We hear from Stephen Rose of Royal Holloway and Bridget Yates a local researcher and music performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.

Researchers from Royal Holloway and Newcastle University have been collaborating on an AHRC funded project sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in County Record Offices across England looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way that music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it.

We hear from Stephen Rose of Royal Holloway University London and Bridget Yates a local researcher and music performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.

Researchers from Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been collaborating on an AHRC funded project sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in County Record Offices across England looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way that music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it.

[LISTEN NOW]

Wakefield

20250513

Matthew Bannister visits Nostell Priory, a grand Palladian house just outside Wakefield, which was the home of Louisa Winn from about 1819. Louisa was an accomplished musician and transcriber who collected some of her favourite tunes in a book - including piano arrangements of Rossini operas and an intriguing French Canadian song that hints at global connections.

In the grand saloon, Matthew meets Simon McCormack the house's curator who shows him Louisa Winn's piano and allows him to pluck a harp string. Andrew Frampton, a pianist and researcher at Newcastle University takes Matthew to the West Yorkshire Archive Service in Wakefield. to see Louisa's music book and some of her sketches of Mont Blanc. Andrew plays some of her music, recorded especially at SJE Arts, and we hear from Nancy Kerr about her fascination with the song Danse Canadienne which is performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.

Matthew Bannister is the host of Folk on Foot, a podcast which explores folk music and landscape in the UK, and has often wondered about where “folk music ? comes from. When he heard about Nancy Kerr's involvement in a new project, Music Heritage, Place he wanted to know more.

Royal Holloway and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it

In the grand saloon, Matthew meets Simon McCormack the house's curator who shows him Louisa Winn's piano and allows him to pluck a harp string. Andrew Frampton, a pianist and researcher at Newcastle University takes Matthew to the West Yorkshire Archive Service in Wakefield. to see Louisa's music book and some of her sketches of Mont Blanc. Andrew plays some of her music and we hear from Nancy Kerr about her fascination with the song Danse Canadienne which is performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.

Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it

[LISTEN NOW]

Cornwall

20250514

Matthew Bannister is in a pub near Redruth with the singer and Cornish music researcher Hilary Coleman. She tells him about the tradition of carol singing, especially amongst tin miners, which survives in Cornwall today.

She and Matthew visit Kresen Kernow, to look at “Eleanor Morgan's book ?,one of the sources used by the Cornish carol collector Davies Gilbert for his carol collection which was published in 1822.

The identity of Eleanor Morgan remains a tantalising mystery. Caro Lesemann-Elliot from Royal Holloway University talks about Davies Gilbert's failure to credit the people whose music he collected.

There's a version of one of the carols: Hark Hark, What News the Angels Bring.that emerged in Australia. Tin miners from Cornwall emigrated to Australia in the 19th century taking their carols with them. Nancy Kerr brings the original Cornish and migrated Australian versions back together.

[LISTEN NOW]

Hampshire

20250515

Matthew Bannister visits the village of Nether Wallop in Hampshire which was the home of Richard Pyle, a wool trader who collected music into a tune book that is kept at the Hampshire Archives in Winchester. He meets Sarah Lewin the archivist there who is also a musician with a group that reenacts historical music.

Stephen Rose from Royal Holloway University explains why the tune book is so important demonstrating that a small English country village was musically connected to places far beyond its county borders.

Nancy Kerr has created a set for her band the Melrose Quartet that explores the music in the book including a new version of what Richard Pyle calls Evening Hymn which is an arrangement of Tallis' Canon. New words draw on Nether Wallop's location in the Test Valley, where Richard Adam's novel Watership Down was set. The new version becomes Silverweed Hymn to Richard Pyle's canon.

[LISTEN NOW]

Newcastle

20250516

Matthew Bannister is allowed a very rare glimpse of Henry Atkinson's tune book from 1695. He's with Steph Carter and Kirsten Gibson from Newcastle University. The book is kept at the Northumberland Archives at the Woodhorn Museum on the site of an old coal mine in Ashington.

Henry Atkinson was a hostman, a member of a cartel of businessmen in Newcastle who controlled the buying and selling of coal. He was also a musician and collected his favourite fiddle tunes handwritten in a small book. Although considered very precious now Steph and Kirsten tell Matthew that books like Henry Atkinson's were quite common. Music making was a sociable activity and many more people were musically active far away from the big cultural centres of London and the University towns than has been previously understood.

Music from the book has been arranged by Nancy Kerr and is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.

Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been collaborating on an AHRC funded project sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in County Record Offices across England. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way that music was shared and enjoyed in the past.

[LISTEN NOW]

Shropshire

20251020

Matthew Bannister is in Shropshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician and Nancy Kerr.

In Bishop's Castle, Matthew is tracking down Thomas Owens, a thatcher, who also composed West Gallery music for local church bands and choirs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Nancy Kerr and the Melrose Quartet lead a crowd of hundreds in singing one of Owens' psalm settings at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, as they rewild his music back into the county where it was composed. Matthew visits the Shropshire Archives in Shrewsbury to examine Thomas Owens' remarkable manuscript music book, The Shropshire Harmony. The music has been explored by researchers from the Music Heritage Place project and Professor Stephen Rose, of Royal Holloway, University of London who leads the team joins Matthew to guide him through it.

Music is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, Jamas Fagan and Nancy Kerr

[LISTEN NOW]

Lincolnshire

20251021

Matthew Bannister is in Lincolnshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician Nancy Kerr.

Matthew is in the village of Holton Le Moor to hear about the music books of the Dixons, a farming family on the rise in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He meets Carol Dawson, a local musician, at a crossroads to hear her play a tune on the fiddle. The Dixon books includes a tune, Yarborough's March, which is only found in this book. The book also contains songs that later went on to be sung by the folk singers like Joseph Taylor whose versions were collected and recorded by Percy Grainger. Professor Kirsten Gibson, of Newcastle University and the Music Heritage Place project, explains that there is lots of evidence of rural farming families being musically literate and musically engaged at this time.

Music is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, Jamas Fagan and Nancy Kerr

[LISTEN NOW]

Wiltshire

20251022

Matthew Bannister is in Wiltshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician Nancy Kerr and The Melrose Quartet.

He's in Christian Malford, with local historian Lucy Whitfield, in search of Harriet Willes a woman with a taste for patriotic songs of the sea. She later married a naval captain, one of Nelson's 'Band of Brothers', Sir Davidge Gould. Professor Kirsten Gibson, from Newcastle University and the Music, Heritage, Place project talks to Matthew about the songs of Charles Dibden, which were also collected by Jane Austen.

Music is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, James Fagan and Nancy Kerr.

[LISTEN NOW]

Northamptonshire

20251023

Matthew Bannister is in Northamptonshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician Nancy Kerr.

Matthew is the presenter of the Folk on Foot podcast and is interested to know where folk music comes from. He's been exploring the archives of English counties with the researchers from the Music Heritage Place project.

Matthew is with Professor Stephen Rose of Royal Holloway, University of London, who is principal investigator on the Music Heritage Place project. The music book found in the papers of the Maunsell family of Thorpe Malsor includes detailed information about embellishments made in the performance of the tunes and is just one of the items in a county archive especially rich in musical items. Sarah Bridges, Archives and Heritage Services Manager at Northamptonshire County Council shows Matthew some of the treasures. Amongst the gems are songs and tunes tiny scraps of paper sent between Northamptonshire and London and correspondence concerning a much desired trombamarine.

Nancy Kerr has reconstructed and arranged the music found for the twenty first century and its performed here by Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan of the Melrose Quartet.

[LISTEN NOW]

Bedfordshire

20251024

In the Bedfordshire Archives, Professor Stephen Rose shows Matthew the legal books of Mark Newman a 17th century notary. Amongst the densely written material there is a song about the joys of tobacco smoking and a ballad, Lay By Your Reason. Nancy Kerr tells Matthew that it is a sister song to Dominion of The Sword, a ballad from earlier in the 1600s best known now because of its interpretation by the folk singer Martin Carthy.

The folk musician Nancy Kerr is co-investigator on the Music, Heritage Place project and has been taking the music found in the archives and reimagining it for the twenty-first century and for performance by her group, The Melrose Quartet (Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, James Fagan and Nancy Kerr).

Matthew also hears about an amazing discovery made by the researchers on the project. In the Norfolk archives, they discovered music written by Henry Purcell in a music book repurposed as an index to the records of Thetford town council. It's the first discovery of music in Purcell's hand for more than 30 years. One of the pieces is an early version of Purcell's G minor Allemand that otherwise is known from the version printed by his widow in 1696 (a year after Purcell died). The Thetford version probably dates from the early 1690s. It has a lot of differences from the printed version, including some different notes, different ways in which the notes are sustained for resonance, and a lot of different ornamentation. The piece has been specially recorded for this programme and is played by Stephen Rose on harpsichord.

[LISTEN NOW]

Episodes

Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Comments
01	Norfolk	20250512	Matthew Bannister travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician and academic Nancy Kerr. Matthew Bannister is in Norwich to visit the Norfolk County Record Office where researchers have found some remarkable manuscripts including an 18th century music book from a village band in Mileham and a ballad written by a woman ousted from her home in the 17th century. Nancy Kerr has made new musical arrangements for her band The Melrose Quartet. As dusk falls, Matthew visits the remains of the magnificent Hales Hall deep in the Norfolk countryside. We hear from Stephen Rose of Royal Holloway and Bridget Yates a local researcher and music performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith. Researchers from Royal Holloway and Newcastle University have been collaborating on an AHRC funded project sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in County Record Offices across England looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way that music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it. We hear from Stephen Rose of Royal Holloway University London and Bridget Yates a local researcher and music performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith. Researchers from Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been collaborating on an AHRC funded project sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in County Record Offices across England looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way that music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it. [LISTEN NOW]
02	Wakefield	20250513	Matthew Bannister visits Nostell Priory, a grand Palladian house just outside Wakefield, which was the home of Louisa Winn from about 1819. Louisa was an accomplished musician and transcriber who collected some of her favourite tunes in a book - including piano arrangements of Rossini operas and an intriguing French Canadian song that hints at global connections. In the grand saloon, Matthew meets Simon McCormack the house's curator who shows him Louisa Winn's piano and allows him to pluck a harp string. Andrew Frampton, a pianist and researcher at Newcastle University takes Matthew to the West Yorkshire Archive Service in Wakefield. to see Louisa's music book and some of her sketches of Mont Blanc. Andrew plays some of her music, recorded especially at SJE Arts, and we hear from Nancy Kerr about her fascination with the song Danse Canadienne which is performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith. Matthew Bannister is the host of Folk on Foot, a podcast which explores folk music and landscape in the UK, and has often wondered about where “folk music ? comes from. When he heard about Nancy Kerr's involvement in a new project, Music Heritage, Place he wanted to know more. Royal Holloway and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it In the grand saloon, Matthew meets Simon McCormack the house's curator who shows him Louisa Winn's piano and allows him to pluck a harp string. Andrew Frampton, a pianist and researcher at Newcastle University takes Matthew to the West Yorkshire Archive Service in Wakefield. to see Louisa's music book and some of her sketches of Mont Blanc. Andrew plays some of her music and we hear from Nancy Kerr about her fascination with the song Danse Canadienne which is performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith. Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it [LISTEN NOW]
03	Cornwall	20250514	Matthew Bannister is in a pub near Redruth with the singer and Cornish music researcher Hilary Coleman. She tells him about the tradition of carol singing, especially amongst tin miners, which survives in Cornwall today. She and Matthew visit Kresen Kernow, to look at “Eleanor Morgan's book ?,one of the sources used by the Cornish carol collector Davies Gilbert for his carol collection which was published in 1822. The identity of Eleanor Morgan remains a tantalising mystery. Caro Lesemann-Elliot from Royal Holloway University talks about Davies Gilbert's failure to credit the people whose music he collected. There's a version of one of the carols: Hark Hark, What News the Angels Bring.that emerged in Australia. Tin miners from Cornwall emigrated to Australia in the 19th century taking their carols with them. Nancy Kerr brings the original Cornish and migrated Australian versions back together. Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it [LISTEN NOW]
04	Hampshire	20250515	Matthew Bannister visits the village of Nether Wallop in Hampshire which was the home of Richard Pyle, a wool trader who collected music into a tune book that is kept at the Hampshire Archives in Winchester. He meets Sarah Lewin the archivist there who is also a musician with a group that reenacts historical music. Stephen Rose from Royal Holloway University explains why the tune book is so important demonstrating that a small English country village was musically connected to places far beyond its county borders. Nancy Kerr has created a set for her band the Melrose Quartet that explores the music in the book including a new version of what Richard Pyle calls Evening Hymn which is an arrangement of Tallis' Canon. New words draw on Nether Wallop's location in the Test Valley, where Richard Adam's novel Watership Down was set. The new version becomes Silverweed Hymn to Richard Pyle's canon. Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it [LISTEN NOW]
05	Newcastle	20250516	Matthew Bannister is allowed a very rare glimpse of Henry Atkinson's tune book from 1695. He's with Steph Carter and Kirsten Gibson from Newcastle University. The book is kept at the Northumberland Archives at the Woodhorn Museum on the site of an old coal mine in Ashington. Henry Atkinson was a hostman, a member of a cartel of businessmen in Newcastle who controlled the buying and selling of coal. He was also a musician and collected his favourite fiddle tunes handwritten in a small book. Although considered very precious now Steph and Kirsten tell Matthew that books like Henry Atkinson's were quite common. Music making was a sociable activity and many more people were musically active far away from the big cultural centres of London and the University towns than has been previously understood. Music from the book has been arranged by Nancy Kerr and is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith. Royal Holloway University and Newcastle University have been collaborating on an AHRC funded project sending out researchers, the “song detectorists ?, to sift through the archives held in County Record Offices across England. They've returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way that music was shared and enjoyed in the past. [LISTEN NOW]
06	Shropshire	20251020	Matthew Bannister is in Shropshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician and Nancy Kerr. In Bishop's Castle, Matthew is tracking down Thomas Owens, a thatcher, who also composed West Gallery music for local church bands and choirs in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Nancy Kerr and the Melrose Quartet lead a crowd of hundreds in singing one of Owens' psalm settings at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, as they rewild his music back into the county where it was composed. Matthew visits the Shropshire Archives in Shrewsbury to examine Thomas Owens' remarkable manuscript music book, The Shropshire Harmony. The music has been explored by researchers from the Music Heritage Place project and Professor Stephen Rose, of Royal Holloway, University of London who leads the team joins Matthew to guide him through it. Music is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, Jamas Fagan and Nancy Kerr [LISTEN NOW]
07	Lincolnshire	20251021	Matthew Bannister is in Lincolnshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician Nancy Kerr. Matthew is in the village of Holton Le Moor to hear about the music books of the Dixons, a farming family on the rise in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He meets Carol Dawson, a local musician, at a crossroads to hear her play a tune on the fiddle. The Dixon books includes a tune, Yarborough's March, which is only found in this book. The book also contains songs that later went on to be sung by the folk singers like Joseph Taylor whose versions were collected and recorded by Percy Grainger. Professor Kirsten Gibson, of Newcastle University and the Music Heritage Place project, explains that there is lots of evidence of rural farming families being musically literate and musically engaged at this time. Music is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, Jamas Fagan and Nancy Kerr [LISTEN NOW]
08	Wiltshire	20251022	Matthew Bannister is in Wiltshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician Nancy Kerr and The Melrose Quartet. He's in Christian Malford, with local historian Lucy Whitfield, in search of Harriet Willes a woman with a taste for patriotic songs of the sea. She later married a naval captain, one of Nelson's 'Band of Brothers', Sir Davidge Gould. Professor Kirsten Gibson, from Newcastle University and the Music, Heritage, Place project talks to Matthew about the songs of Charles Dibden, which were also collected by Jane Austen. Music is performed by The Melrose Quartet: Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, James Fagan and Nancy Kerr. [LISTEN NOW]
09	Northamptonshire	20251023	Matthew Bannister is in Northamptonshire as he travels across England to find out about the music discovered in County Record Offices and reimagined for the 21st Century by the folk musician Nancy Kerr. Matthew is the presenter of the Folk on Foot podcast and is interested to know where folk music comes from. He's been exploring the archives of English counties with the researchers from the Music Heritage Place project. Matthew is with Professor Stephen Rose of Royal Holloway, University of London, who is principal investigator on the Music Heritage Place project. The music book found in the papers of the Maunsell family of Thorpe Malsor includes detailed information about embellishments made in the performance of the tunes and is just one of the items in a county archive especially rich in musical items. Sarah Bridges, Archives and Heritage Services Manager at Northamptonshire County Council shows Matthew some of the treasures. Amongst the gems are songs and tunes tiny scraps of paper sent between Northamptonshire and London and correspondence concerning a much desired trombamarine. Nancy Kerr has reconstructed and arranged the music found for the twenty first century and its performed here by Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan of the Melrose Quartet. [LISTEN NOW]
10	Bedfordshire	20251024	In the Bedfordshire Archives, Professor Stephen Rose shows Matthew the legal books of Mark Newman a 17th century notary. Amongst the densely written material there is a song about the joys of tobacco smoking and a ballad, Lay By Your Reason. Nancy Kerr tells Matthew that it is a sister song to Dominion of The Sword, a ballad from earlier in the 1600s best known now because of its interpretation by the folk singer Martin Carthy. The folk musician Nancy Kerr is co-investigator on the Music, Heritage Place project and has been taking the music found in the archives and reimagining it for the twenty-first century and for performance by her group, The Melrose Quartet (Jess Arrowsmith, Richard Arrowsmith, James Fagan and Nancy Kerr). Matthew also hears about an amazing discovery made by the researchers on the project. In the Norfolk archives, they discovered music written by Henry Purcell in a music book repurposed as an index to the records of Thetford town council. It's the first discovery of music in Purcell's hand for more than 30 years. One of the pieces is an early version of Purcell's G minor Allemand that otherwise is known from the version printed by his widow in 1696 (a year after Purcell died). The Thetford version probably dates from the early 1690s. It has a lot of differences from the printed version, including some different notes, different ways in which the notes are sustained for resonance, and a lot of different ornamentation. The piece has been specially recorded for this programme and is played by Stephen Rose on harpsichord. [LISTEN NOW]